226 



Mycologia 



lets were interpreted as being the remains of the lactic fluid which 

 the glands had secreted. 



The detailed structure of these glandular bodies is rather diffi- 

 cult to make out and is different in different specimens. Two con- 

 stant features are the presence of an outer wall of several layers 

 which have the appearance of the striations of a starch grain and 

 the presence inside the body of a number of "ducts" which can 

 be seen to penetrate the wall and apparently ramify throughout the 

 interior. The structure within the striated walls is quite variable. 

 While most of the large elements in the tuckahoe are homogenous 

 bodies with no apparent striations whatever, an occasional body 

 may be found in sectioned material which is markedly striated. 

 The bodies interpreted as glands may be these large striated bodies 

 partly dissolved by the action of the ducts entering them. They 

 do, however, differ considerably from most of the larger elements 

 of the tuckahoe, in their regularity of form. In looking over a 

 slide they may be very readily located by following the path of the 

 ducts, which invariably lead in their direction. 



The presence of the milky juice and the lactiferous ducts and 

 glandular bodies may be of some generic significance. However, 

 it would seem essential, in a sclerotium of the size and nature of 

 the southern tuckahoe, if the stored material is to be transported 

 rapidly for the production of a fruiting body or any other purpose, 

 that some system of glands and ducts be developed. 



The behavior of the fungus in the greenhouse bench probably 

 has no significance in determining its possible parasitism. The 

 mycelium was apparently penetrating the pine boards in the bottom 

 of the bench ; also, it had overgrown two cotton plant roots without 

 any apparent injury to them. Its failure to attack the cotton roots 

 does not prove that the fungus can not attack living, pine roots, as 

 has been so often affirmed. With suitable equipment, it should 

 not be difficult to follow for a considerable period the development 

 of the tuckahoe and its possible parasitic relation to various hosts. 

 The idea, commonly prevalent among the earlier observers, that the 

 whole sclerotium was covered with the bark of the root attacked, 

 which idea led to the conclusion that the growth was an abnor- 

 mally developed root, is easily understood. The cortex has much 



